Gaston Ramirez should be aiming for higher, although he could quite possibly see Liverpool as a stepping stone.
Arsenal aren't interested. I'm sure if they were and it was a two way battle between them and Liverpool, he would pick Arsenal.
Would be great news if true (Ramirez) different reports are saying between 16 and 20mil£ prob will be 16 to Bologna and the rest on wages
There was a twitter rumour that our bid was £32M! Seems like (if anything can be believed) both ourselves and Man City went in with around £15M, we got told to bugger off, and we came back with something closer to Bologna's £20M price. Probably £17-19M.
Not being aggressive but why? The only thing Arsenal have that we don't is CL this year - and let's face it you'll get to the quarters at best. We can both offer football at a better team, big club, better stadiums (than in Italy), better league, better money, prestige. Liverpool can also offer him guaranteed first XI football, the chance to be part of a project and a lot of Spanish/Portuguese speaking team-mates, including two he knows well from international duty.
I think Arsenal are currently a better prospect for a couple of reasons. Firstly their team/club/stadium are just a bit ahead of Liverpool, there's not actually massivce amounts in it but if you were forced to put money on who was going to do better next season I think only ardent Liverpool fans with scant regard for their finances would bet on Liverpool. Secondly, and more importantly, is Arsene Wenger. He has his detractors but I'd say he's one of the best managers of the past two decades to grace the Premiership and his legacy at Arsenal has reshaped alot of modern football and professionalism. You compare this to a situation at Liverpool where there has been an uncharacteristic situation of changing managers and i think many players would opt for Arsenal in a straight head-to-head. It'd be nice to see Liverpool back in the top 5/6 next year and you tend to play nice football when you're on song, its just not been that regular for a few seasons now.
I don't think Arsenal's squad is much better really. They look strong in attack right now, but we need to see if Podolski fits in, or Giroud, and who knows if RVP will be there or not? Liverpool's back 6 (inc. Lucas) are better. I don't think I'd be alone in saying Arsenal's third place finish came largely from the Herculean effort of Van Persie. The stadium is better, right now, which I did consider, but from another point of view, it's new, and has so far enjoyed no real history. Anfield, like Old Trafford, White Hart Lane, the Bridge and Highbury are (or were) iconic stadiums known worldwide. Whether that would matter or not I don't know. Arsene Wenger is a strong factor, of course. The only negative I can think of is that Ramirez is not French, as Arsene seems to have a magnetic pull for players from that area. Yeh, the standard of our football for large parts of the season merited top 5/6. We just couldn't finish our chances (lowest conversion rate in the league I think) - awful after January in particular. A very disappointing and frustrating season (I thought we'd end up 5th at the start). We still had a very, very outside chance of 4th until Arsenal robbed (and it was a robbery) the points off us at Anfield. That match typified our season - we dominated, lots of chances, great play, no finishing, opposition nick it. Of course, we can only blame ourselves.
I probably shouldn't have used the pound sign - it didn't specify 32M of 'what'. All it said was 'LFC bid... blah blah blah 32M. More than Juve.' Seems like rubbish though.
